Noisy demos as Blair bows out
Anti-Iraq war protestors camped outside Downing Street on Wednesday to give Tony Blair a noisy send-off.
By Agencies |
LONDON: Anti-Iraq war protestors camped outside Downing Street on Wednesday to give Tony Blair a noisy send-off as his family's belongings were loaded into a removal van ahead of his farewell from office.
About 100 demonstrators from the Stop The War Coalition gathered at the end of Britain's most famous street, carrying skeleton puppets, blowing whistles and shouting slogans like "Troops out" and "Tony Blair terrorist".
Also bidding Blair good riddance was a group of several women from families who have lost husbands, brothers and sons in the conflict and who secured permission to protest directly outside Blair's office.
As he drove past on his way to his final question-and-answer session with lawmakers before handing over to Gordon Brown, they screamed: "Yo, Blair! you criminal!"
This was a reference to United States President George W. Bush's greeting to Blair, overheard at last year's G8 summit and widely interpreted as showing that the prime minister was the junior partner in Anglo-US relations.
One of the women, Donna Mahoney, held a picture of her dead husband Peter - a soldier who killed himself in 2004 after a tour of duty in Iraq - and said she hoped Blair's departure would help her make a new start in life.
"I just want to make sure he's leaving - I feel like we have to close the chapter, to see him going in flesh and blood," she told AFP.
"Saddam Hussein has gone, Tony Blair and the last one will be Bush." Mahoney, 44, travelled down on a bus late last night from the city of Carlisle, in northwest England, near the Scottish border.
She brought with her a small bottle of champagne to pop the cork when Blair drives out of Downing Street for the last time to formally resign at a private audience at Buckingham Palace with Queen Elizabeth II.
Asked if his departure would allow her to move on, she said: "It will to a degree, but I'll never get over it and it won't be gone until all the troops are back."
She added: "I'm hoping that Gordon Brown will be stronger and not let Bush dictate."
Pamela Gentle, whose brother Gordon was killed in Iraq three years ago on Thursday, stood in one of the several pens set up along Downing Street to enclose press and, briefly, protestors.
"We will be celebrating today but then it hits you when you get back on the bus that the anniversary is tomorrow," she said.
Among the protests at the end of Downing Street was John Howsam, 65, who held a placard saying simply: "Good riddance."
And he expressed little hope that Blair's successor Brown would pursue different policies over Iraq.
"They're both cheeks of the same backside, aren't they?" he said, adding that he planned to shove his placard in the path of the car taking Blair and his wife, Cherie, to the palace.
Some, though, seemed keen to give the Blairs a more generous farewell and the Browns a warmer welcome.
In the queue to pass through the tight security ring which surrounds Downing Street, a courier, who did not want to give his name, was delivering a box of flowers addressed to "Mrs S. Brown, 10 Downing Street" - Brown's wife Sarah.
He said that there had been many deliveries for the Blairs on Tuesday and that he expected a surge for Britain's new "first couple" on Thursday.
Meanwhile, a huge removal van was parked outside Downing Street early in the day, a symbolic reminder that very soon Brown would be lapping up the plaudits and ducking the brickbats.
About 100 demonstrators from the Stop The War Coalition gathered at the end of Britain's most famous street, carrying skeleton puppets, blowing whistles and shouting slogans like "Troops out" and "Tony Blair terrorist".
Also bidding Blair good riddance was a group of several women from families who have lost husbands, brothers and sons in the conflict and who secured permission to protest directly outside Blair's office.
As he drove past on his way to his final question-and-answer session with lawmakers before handing over to Gordon Brown, they screamed: "Yo, Blair! you criminal!"
This was a reference to United States President George W. Bush's greeting to Blair, overheard at last year's G8 summit and widely interpreted as showing that the prime minister was the junior partner in Anglo-US relations.
One of the women, Donna Mahoney, held a picture of her dead husband Peter - a soldier who killed himself in 2004 after a tour of duty in Iraq - and said she hoped Blair's departure would help her make a new start in life.
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"I just want to make sure he's leaving - I feel like we have to close the chapter, to see him going in flesh and blood," she told AFP.
"Saddam Hussein has gone, Tony Blair and the last one will be Bush." Mahoney, 44, travelled down on a bus late last night from the city of Carlisle, in northwest England, near the Scottish border.
She brought with her a small bottle of champagne to pop the cork when Blair drives out of Downing Street for the last time to formally resign at a private audience at Buckingham Palace with Queen Elizabeth II.
Asked if his departure would allow her to move on, she said: "It will to a degree, but I'll never get over it and it won't be gone until all the troops are back."
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She added: "I'm hoping that Gordon Brown will be stronger and not let Bush dictate."
Pamela Gentle, whose brother Gordon was killed in Iraq three years ago on Thursday, stood in one of the several pens set up along Downing Street to enclose press and, briefly, protestors.
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"We will be celebrating today but then it hits you when you get back on the bus that the anniversary is tomorrow," she said.
Among the protests at the end of Downing Street was John Howsam, 65, who held a placard saying simply: "Good riddance."
And he expressed little hope that Blair's successor Brown would pursue different policies over Iraq.
"They're both cheeks of the same backside, aren't they?" he said, adding that he planned to shove his placard in the path of the car taking Blair and his wife, Cherie, to the palace.
Some, though, seemed keen to give the Blairs a more generous farewell and the Browns a warmer welcome.
In the queue to pass through the tight security ring which surrounds Downing Street, a courier, who did not want to give his name, was delivering a box of flowers addressed to "Mrs S. Brown, 10 Downing Street" - Brown's wife Sarah.
He said that there had been many deliveries for the Blairs on Tuesday and that he expected a surge for Britain's new "first couple" on Thursday.
Meanwhile, a huge removal van was parked outside Downing Street early in the day, a symbolic reminder that very soon Brown would be lapping up the plaudits and ducking the brickbats.
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